Elissa's Tale
by Mago V
Summary: This is the first sequel of New Carthage following Elissa recruiting mortals who can see through the mist and Greek, Roman, and Norse half bloods as well as Egyptian magicians.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing. This is a sequel to New Carthage**

In all honesty I should have noticed something was up the moment Bethóc and I walked into the young man's home armless except for my newly obtained soliferrum and Bethóc's bow, however the old man, Himilco I think his name was, had persuaded us that excessive show of force was not the way to make allies. I was however glad that that meant no bulky armor that had to be carried around, both Bethóc and I agreed about that.

We started our search by taking a bus ride to the art museum, you know the one with the art, anyway after paying for tickets with our tickets, self reminder, I need to see if these work everywhere, we wondered around looking for anyone who seemed bored with looking at art that was millions of years old. Naturally that was a lot of people, including me.

"If we're looking for people who can see through the mist shouldn't we have started with a museum that's the least likely to make them fall asleep." I asked Bethóc who was looking at some sort of painting with a monkey on a leash.

"Where do you suggest looking for anyone then"? She asked turning around from the painting.

"Any place that can hold someone's attention longer than a painting." I said.

Bethóc nodded "ah yes the ADHD of demigods."

I suddenly had an interest in the floor, "I, um, am actually the only one of the three of us who has it. It does help demigods survive in battle but most of us aren't even demigods, were just blessed by them.

"Interesting." Bethóc said as she led us away from the monkey exhibit. "You're not demigods but still manage to survive in a world full of monsters."

"Unlike Greek and Roman demigods the majority of us are trained from birth to be able to live in this world." We continued to walk coming to a staircase.

"Like Sparta." I heard Bethóc mumble under her breath.

"And citizen soldiers of ancient Carthage." I said stopping on the last step. "However I do suppose you're right, ever since the first Punic war many of us have held Sparta in high regards thanks to the mercenary General Xanthippus."

At the top of the stairs there was an arms and armor exhibit filled with pole arms, daggers, swords, maces, axes, chain mail, metal Cuirass, helms and more.

"Will this do"? Bethóc asked.

"Sure," I responded "let's get to work."

In other words just standing around looking at the exhibits until something unexpected happened. After waiting around for a while I was getting discouraged, and was about to suggest leaving when Bethóc tapped my shoulder and whispered, "Five thirty."

"Already"?

"I meant look behind you to your right."

"I knew that." I said turning my head around to see what she was talking about.

What I saw was a pike, probably from a German Landsknecht, alongside one of their sidearms, a decorated short sword. There was also a boy looking at it. I assume she was talking about him instead of the exhibit.

"He's been standing there almost as long as we've been in here."

"What are we supposed to do now"? I asked.

"I don't know? Approach him I guess."

"I can hear you know."

"How," I asked narrowing my eyes, were had both been whispering.

I assume if you've come looking for me you also part of the thirty seventh node. Strange though I don't know your voices.

"Same as the Frenchman." I heard Bethóc mutter.

The magician turned revealing a blonde pale, and skinny teenager wearing a museum t shirt and jeans, "You're certainly not new recruits. If you would follow me though, we have much to discuss." he said guiding us out of the museum.

"I know just the place for a friendly little meal, a nice cozy little Italian place this way." he said not pausing to look back even to bother making sure we were following. I turned around to Bethóc and shrugged. Might as well, it was getting close to lunch.

When we finally made it to the restaurant we were greeted by middle aged waiter who looked far too comfortable stuck in the small restaurant he worked in and the menu, I found the latter to be more interesting.

We were seated at a table that was already occupied by a black haired man who seemed to be about thirty in a trench coat.

I was positive he was about to stand up mutter something about teenagers and leave without paying, but he just turned to the teenager and gave him a small leather pouch.

"You are dismissed." the man said in voice that reminded me of a serpent's.

We sat waiting for him to say anything or tell us what we were doing here but we were interrupted by a waitress.

"Hello, what can I get for you today"?

"The grilled chicken mozzarella wrap." the man said without looking up.

"Anything to drink"? She asked.

"Water will suffice."

The waiter then asked us, I ordered fried chicken tenders and lemonade and Bethóc ordered a New England lobster roll.

I cringed; I was now hoping she had money of her own to spend.

A few minutes later the waitress brought out our food and we ate in silence. I was about to interrupt it, the silence that is, when the man straightened up, and looked me in the eyes.

"What are you kids up to? My associate tells me that you're _recruiting_ ," he said diving into his poker and laid a phone on the table. "I'd like to hear it from you personally." he said raising his glass.

"Who's asking"? I said.

"None of your business child, answer the question." the man said putting the glass down and leaned towards us. "You can tell me what I want to know hear and now, or I could bring you two to our station."

"Wait you're with the police"? Bethóc asked.

"No," he said leaning back in his chair "I do not, nor have I ever worked for them."

"Well then, we're not talking." I responded crossing my arms.

"Yes you are." he said pulling what looked like a letter opener out of his sleeve. "Waitress, the check please he said smiling."

I was about to reach for my spear but Bethóc nudged me "Not now, we would appear to be the aggressors here." she whispered.

"Quite right, so don't go reaching for you weapons in fact, weapons aren't permitted where we are going so if you would please." he said extending his right hand forward. I was tempted to cut it off but I didn't think that that would fly well so I grudgingly handed him my spear and Bethóc followed suite with her knife.

"Now, if you would follow me, oh and Victoria, you too." the man said turning towards the waitress.

"I suppose I can take a break." the waitress who served us said reaching into her apron and pulled out a letter opener that morphed into a gladius.

The man led us through the neighborhood and to an apartment complex.

"Third floor." he said stepping aside ushering us up the stairs next to the sword wielding waitress.

The room they stared us to was surprisingly comfortable looking; one couch in front of large screen television, a swivel chair rested in front of a desk with a pc and topped off with pictures the world, such as Tangier, Rome and Berlin.

There was however one thing that made me worry, even more than the fact that we had been forcibly brought here. And that was the racks of weapons.

Attached to his wall overhanging the computer was a collection of swords surrounding a buckle, it made it look like one very deadly sun.

To The right of the desk was a rack of firearms ranging from 18th century muskets and cavalry pistols to your modern infantry rifle.

And right next to a door there was placed a rack of pull arms, including pikes, halberds, and Javelins.

It was basically a smaller room with more weapons than the art museums arms and armor room.

"Sit down." our kidnapper told us after he closed the door. "Now," he said not even waiting for us to sit on his sofa. "Victoria go and bring Cadmus here while I question these two."

"All right." Victoria said leaving through a door next to the pull arm rack.

"I suppose you're wondering what you're doing here." the man said turning back to us. "Well I'll tell you, the senate refuses to believe me when I say that there are Greeks out there. They all tell me that one boy doesn't count as an entire people. So after more arguing with the senate they write me off as a crazy man and banished me. However now I'll be able to return with you three and show the senate I was right all along."

"Sir," the woman's voice came from behind the door "you should take a look at this."

"Right, you guard the others then." he said leaving letting the women in.

As soon as the door closed she turned around and locked the door that she had just come through.

Umm, what are you doing"? Bethóc asked.

"Why isn't it Obvious"? She asked turning around. "Preparing lunch." she said as she grabbed a javelin from the rack.


	2. Chapter 2

**I own nothing**

"Who are you"? I asked backing up against the wall. You may be thinking what are you doing trapping yourself? Shouldn't you be running for the door?

"You should know better than anyone." she said looking at me "I was a queen of Libya, so famed that I caught the eye of Zeus, but then that witch, Hera, killed all of my children and left me a fate worse than death."

I suddenly wished that Mago or Gisco were here, I had no idea who this was I looked over to Bethóc who just shrugged.

"Great." I thought fighting a monster who I have no idea how to. "This should be fun."

As we kept backing up the woman swung her javelin like a club just barely missing me and hit the desk instead which I was able to jump upon and grab a sword. I remember thinking that the hilt was a little scrawny for sword meant for hacking but I didn't really have time to think about it then.

The women then flipped the javelin over the tip now facing us and thrusted catching Bethóc completely off guard as it grazed her side.

Thankful for the distraction I was able to slice the javelin out of the woman's unsuspecting grasp as it fell to the ground I thought it was over when she jumped at me. I raised my sword up for cover but immediately dropped it after I felt a stinging sensation on my back leg allowing the women to grab me.

The women pulled a knife from her pocket and readied to strike when her eyes opened wide. It took me a while to figure out why but then I saw Bethóc's dirk sticking out of her shoulder.

After the initial surprise I was able to shove the women off me and stab her with her own knife however instead of exploding into dust like most monsters do she exploded into tiny worms.

"Augh, worms!" I shouted "why did it have to be worms"?

"Snakes I think would be more accurate." Bethóc said gingerly stepping over the writhing creatures to make her way to the door.

When we made it out of the apartment we were about to head back to New Hippo, or whatever it was called, when the same boy that had led us into the restaurant came running towards us, this time wearing a brass breastplate and greaves.

"Sorry about that there, I am however glad I spotted you."

"Why, so you can drag us back to your master and snake lady"?

"What, no I was being held prisoner by them."

Then suddenly the recognition dawned on me.

He said something about the senate not believing him; he was Roman, wasn't he"?

"No one is supposed to know this, the gods have kept us separate for a reason, but I am living proof that nothing ever goes as planned. How do you know about the Roman camp? My mother was put to death because of what she knew."

"What"? I asked shocked.

"Come on, if we talk about it here we're going to be looked up. My apartment is just a few minutes from here."

Bethóc and I exchanged glances, could we trust this guy now any more than we could before he led us into the trap? What if he was just playing nice to get us back to where the man was, or if the snake lady was already reformed waiting for her _lunch_.

"Or you could stay here and die without the proper medicine for that snakebite." He said gesturing at me. "Don't worry; I have the supplies to heal it in my apartment."

We walked a while longer through the streets of Chicago until we arrived at his apartment,

"Make yourselves comfortable, I'll be in the kitchen getting the antidote for your snake bite." he said.

I looked down to where I felt the sting earlier, and sure enough there were two fang marks inside of a red circle, a clear snake bite.

"Happened when you were busy with the lady." Bethóc said looking up.

"Good shot by the way, anyway did you happen to see where they put our weapons, I left the sword in the crazy guys apartment."

"I was able to take it off of him when he came in to check on me, he'll be fine, just a large bump on his forehead," our host said returning with a vial of something or other, "can't say the same with the Daemon you put the knife through though."

"Oops, sorry." Bethóc looked down embarrassed.

"It's fine, shell reform eventually. Drink this." he said handing me the vial.

"Is this safe." I asked.

"Well if you want to compare its about as safe as pouring salt in the wound as opposed to acid."

"Are you trying to make me feel better"? I asked.

"Just drink it."

I hesitated, a stranger giving me a vial of liquid saying its medicine and telling me to drink it, than i thought back to his words earlier about me dying instead. Needless to say I drank it.

As soon as I felt the first drop hit my tongue I regretted it. It tasted like gasoline and was searing hot, I doubled over and immediately felt light headed and blacked out.

When I came back around I was laying on the couch when I heard our host say "I'm just glad she dropped the vial before drinking any more of it, usually it would kill mortals."

"I thought you said it was safe." asked Bethóc.

"You seemed well educated in the myths, I thought you were demigods." he said looking away sheepishly.

"You gave her nectar!"

"I am surprised that she survived at all, even the tiniest amount would be more than enough to incinerate a mortal." he said looking over to me. "Ah, it seems our patient has regained consciousness."

"It seems like the nectar did cure you of the snake venom though," he said walking over to me, "we have not been properly introduced, my name is Cadmus named after the original Cadmus," he said extending his hand out to me.

I tried to raise my hand but winced the pain, from either the venom or the cure i don't know which, still was there faint but still there.

"Right," he said pulling his hand back to his side, "tell me though how do you know so much about real mythology without being a demigod, were forbidden from talking about it to anyone who isn't one"?

"And yet that doesn't stop you from talking to us." Bethóc said walking over to the couch.

Cadmus just shrugged "You seemed to know enough about it, but how is what I want to know."

I had to stop myself from answering right away, everyone has heard of the saying _beware of Greeks bearing gifts._ That was a saying that the Romans had taken to the extreme and one that Carthage had ignored when asking for an alliance against Rome in the Punic wars, and look where it got them.

On the other hand, Cadmus seemed like he had no reason for wanting to help either the Greeks or the Romans and he was named after a Phoenician prince, if he even knew, so I decided to tell him.

"Were not demigods nor followers of the Greek pantheon or culture, I said, "I was raised in New Carthage and Bethóc is from a group of mortals who can see through the mist and have had their families broken by the hunters."

Cadmus narrowed his eyes, "Do you mean Cartagena"? He asked looking at me.

"Uh, no." I said deciding to tell him everything. I carefully watched his eyes during my description looking for any disbelief, unlike most of the other people who I told about New Carthage he didn't start sputtering incoherent nonsense about how that was impossible or why them and other such crap."

"Interesting."

I'll be honest I was expecting him to be speechless or have some sort of question like the others, but no just that one word.

"I would like to visit one day."

"Um, _that_ may be a problem." I said telling him about the revolution.

"However," Bethóc said, "There is a secondary place called New Hippone, that's where we're staying and some others."

"Others, are they all mortals"? Cadmus asked.

"For the most part, however we do have a son Hecate and another of Hermes." at this Cadmus's eyes lit up.

"Ooh, I have a brother."

"You're a son of Hermes"? I asked.

"No lock or alarm system is beyond my skills." he said bowing.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Still, you seem to trust me enough not to go crawling back to New Rome with this info." he said smiling.

"If your father was Hermes, who is Greek, your mother must have been Roman, If she was put to death by them I wouldn't think you would ever go back to them." Bethóc said

"Touche." Cadmus said with a pained smile.

"Plus your name kind of helps." I said not wanting to be left out.

"Cadmus"? He said looking confused for a while. "Ah, right Phoenician Prince, got it."

"We should really get heading back now." I said starting to rise, "Thank you for your," that was as far as i got when Bethóc pushed me down.

"Cadmus and I talked about this, were staying until the morning so we can be sure that it's safe to travel with you."

"She's right, you're in no condition to get up, let alone walk." Cadmus said turning away, "Anyway, it's already six, what do you prefer, Chinese or Thai"?

"Chinese." I said, having never actually had Thai food I decided to stick to the safe path.

"Right." Cadmus said throwing on a trench coat and grabbed a short broad sword.

"You need to kill you order at a Chinese restaurant"? Bethóc asked raising her eyebrows.

"What? No I just carry it for protection." Cadmus said looking at her like she was crazy.

"She's lived a sheltered life, away from fast food essays final exams." I said not even bothering to look at them.

"Ah, right, sorry."

"And it's not like being protected helped you out last time." I added.

"I wasn't expecting two of them, now if you excuse me, I'm going to get carryout." he said closing the door a bit more force than was necessary.

Bethóc pulled up a stool next to the couches head and sat quietly until Cadmus came back with the food.

"Here," he said throwing boxes of white rice and sweet and sour chicken to Bethóc and I. "help yourself to some lemonade or grape juice in the kitchen, I'm going to bed, I've had a long last couple of days." he said throwing his coat on the floor.

"Oh, by the way, he said turning around in the doorway I've retrieved your spear, it's on the counter in the kitchen." he said pointing at me, anyway I'll be in my room if you need me.

That night was one of the most relaxing I've had since my brother had gone on an assignment issued by Himilco a few days back. And his order for Bethóc and I to find anyone with ties back to ancient Carthage and bring them back to New Hippone. So far however all of the people we've found had no connection with Carthage so we were being overworked trying to find some mortals who could at least sea through the mist.

I guess finding Cadmus gave me hope somehow, I mean, if he was named after a Phoenician prince wouldn't it only be logical that the people who raised him knew about us?

Bethóc surprised me with what she said next, it was almost like she was reading my mind.

"His father is god and his mother is dead, how do we go about this now"? She asked sitting down in a recliner chair.

"Bring him back to New Hippone and ask Himilco." I responded closing my eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

**I own nothing**

We had just returned to the Hancock building when Thomas Kirk greated us.

"Who's this"? He asked smiling at Cadmus.

"This is Cadmus, a son of Hermes and a Roman mortal." answered Bethóc.

"Pleased to meet you." the Greek said extending his hand towards Thomas.

"Right ," Thomas said ignoring the hand, "If you'd follow me," he said leading us into the skyscraper. "The city has changed since you've last been here," Thomas said looking over at me and then he turned his attention towards Cadmus, "since you are Greek you should feel accustomed to this, but Kothar and Khasis have been busy building cabins for all of our recruits based on your patron god.

"Patron god"?

"Yeah," I said "we're not all descendants of gods the gods just tend to smile upon us, and the god that smiles upon you the most is your patron, three days after I got here I was recognized by Astarte, goddess of love…"

"Thats hard to believe, you seem to have a firm understanding of war." Cadmus interrupted while Thomas just stifled a laugh.

"All of you greeks think the same, when everyone saw the dove the greeks who knew me started to laugh because I contradicted their picture of what a child of love should be like, they shut up when they saw the heart at my feet."

"A heart, how cute." Cadmus said smirking, probably trying imagining me in a dress

"Yup," Thomas said, "still beating too." Of course that didn't actually happen but it felt good to see Cadmus put in his place.

That wiped the smirk off of Cadmus's face, "Excuse me."

"Astarte is the Goddess of love _and_ war, both are pleasurable to her. That shut him up for a while.

By that time we had arrived at the elevator that led us to the base Mount Zaphon. I was still hoping for a larger elevator, if we ever had to bring back three recruits there would have to be separate rides and all Bethóc and I wanted to do after a mission was to sleep.

As soon as the doors opened all of us were greeted by a stone-faced Gisco.

"I see you've returned."

"No, this is just a hologram Gisco." I said irritated.

"Whatever, I need to talk to you now." he said ignoring Bethóc, Cadmus, and Thomas .

"Can it wait," I asked annoyed, "I need to report to himilco and show Cadmus around."

"I think Bethóc can handle showing him around and I've already reported you progress to Himilco."

"How"? I asked startled.

"You can go." Gisco said dismissing the others.

Bethóc and Thomas just looked at eachother and then at me.

"Go ahead, I'll catch up with you latter." I said to Bethóc.

This way," Gisco said leading me towards the base of the mountain and into what looked like a lighthouse. "My office is at the top, my apologies for making you walk up this many stairs in your current condition, but you must be made aware of something that no one else can know.

"Your … office"? I asked, not remembering him having any office before I left. However I also didn't remember the city having a lighthouse, or even that Gisco would be in a position to have an office. The last time i had seen him he was just a researcher who spent most of his time at either the Field Museum, the art Institute or locked up in his room that he and Mago had shared when he was here.

A few minutes later we finally reached the top of the tower. However there was nothing to see it looked like the top of an observation tower without windows. I was about to question Gisco about why I was up here when I heard him mumbling to himself with his hands on the wall like he was being searched or something. Eventually part of the wall began to shimmer and then completely disappeared revealing a small side room.

"Take a seat." he said pointing to a chair facing a large desk. I did as he asked with him taking the seat on the opposite side. I felt like i was back in school being lectured to not fall asleep in class or pay attention when the teacher was talking, no doubt that's how Gisco wanted people to feel.

Unlike me and my brother Gisco had always been considered a genius, my brother, Mago, had a bigger focus on battlefield tactics, while I, I just performed better on the battlefield then any of them.

"A lot has changed since you two left three days ago." Gisco said sliding a stack of papers aside.

"Gee, I haven't noticed."

"Yes, yes your sarcasm knows no bounds. Anyway I take it Thomas told you about the cabins"?

"Yes, he did."

"Good, until your brother gets back I, Gisco Anderson, place you in charge of all of the cabins."

I was stunned, sure i was more qualified that most of the people here but Gisco wasn't the type of person to distribute power out to anyone other than my brother quickly."

"What about you, why aren't you in charge"? I asked.

"I have been ordered to inspect a certain area for, well, signs. I will leave at daybreak tomorrow, that's why I placed you in charge. I would have honestly felt better leaving Bethóc in charge but that would be a dilemma considering her knowledge of Punic mythology is even less than yours." Gisco said grabbing a notebook from under the desk.

"What about Thomas, not that I'm objecting or anything." I asked still confused.

"That brings me to my next point. After today Thomas will be leaving on a quest of his own ordered by Mathias Laterza to find Himilco."

"What, why isn't he here"? I asked.

"Don't know, the day you left he just up and left, didn't say a word to anybody other than me and all he said was "keep things running while I'm gone.""

"Cryptic." I said.

"Very." he agreed.

"Anyway , is Mathias still here or is he at another theatre"? I asked.

"He is going to show Thomas where his last known location is, after that, it's all up to him to find Himilco."

"Anyway don't mention his absence to anybody, we don't want to cause a stir. Finally sign this." he said handing me the notebook and a pen. "Its just to show the transfer of power when the highest ranking official leaves on important business."

"So much for humility." I said signing.

"Now if you would excuse me, I have to start getting ready for tomorrow." He said picking up a book, "I expect to be out of contact for around a fortnight, if you need any advice ask one of the greeks to set up an Iris message to your brother for you." He said motioning to me to leave.

"I would close the door, but I don't know how." I said remembering one of his largest pet peeves was people walking in on him interrupting his concentration.

"Don't worry about it," Gisco said standing, "I'll need to leave here soon, I need to pick up a package and am pretty sure that the mortal delivery person should not take the elevator up to here." he said following me down the tower's stairs.

Ok, I'll be honest, the first thing I did after getting down from the tower was to go check out the cabins, specifically mine.

Now if you thinking that these cabins would be the same as the ones in the Greek camp, you're wrong, there were about four set up in a square. The largest one, in the front was for Tanit, Goddess of Carthage itself, I was able to figure that out quickly enough thanks to the giant crescent moon symbol with circle and triangle underneath it.

I felt kind of sad looking at it, sure it was the largest and most elegantly decorated, but no one had her as a patron goddess. Of course she was Giscos mother, in a way, but not even he was chosen by her. However that didn't surprise me, from what I remembered about her was that she had the highest expectations for her disciples.

The Cabin on its right side looked like a forge, I expected it to be Kothar's.

The one directly opposite of Tanits Cabin was short but made up for the fact by the outsides seemed to made of gold. I had no idea what goddess or god this belonged to so i kept moving.

The final cabin looked like it was going to war with itself. Half of it was painted pink and the other half was blood red. The really interesting thing was the heart painted in the middle of the pointed top. The part painted on the pink side was your average hallmark _I love you_ heart while the other half on the red side depicted, well, the real thing. Or as real as half a heart can look.

I started to smirk I knew that any disciples of Astarte who were originally daughters of Aphrodite were going to faint the first they saw it.

Inside the cabin didn't look any different from your usual camping rows of bunk beds leading up to one single bed at the front that arranged horizontally rather than vertically so that it was on both of the sides.

There was only one other occupant in it at the time, Metilda Adams, I remember Bethóc and I had found her escaped from a foster home, we returned her and asked for Himilco to _adopt_ her as one of the reasons she escaped was that she reported having been followed by a cyclops.

She was claimed on her first day just after Bethóc and I had finished showing her around. She was a combination of both of Astarte's personalities, fierce but loyal.

"The head beds for you." she said looking up from whatever it was she was looking at, a phone probably, "Himilco is cutting down on the apartments so that we can rent them out."

"Thanks, I'll go get everything." I said leaving.

"Don't bother, I already got your stuff, it's all under you bed."

"Oh," I said looking under the bed to make sure she got everything, "Thanks."

"No problem, oh yeah, Bethóc is looking for you I told her I would let you know. She said she would be would be outside of Eshmun's cabin."

"Is that the gold one"? I asked.

"No," she said "Eshmun's is in the other complex on the other side of the road. I think she said it was across from Ba'al Hammon's."

"Right, ram horn dude." I said leaving.

In all retrospect calling the chief god of Carthage the _ram horn god_ was probably a bad idea but his symbol is ram's horns and that is what the cabin had attached to the top. The cabin itself was made out of intertwined trees, making it look like four hollowed out baobab trees all tied together.

The cabin across from it, Eshmun's the god of healing, was built entirely out of Marble. That's all I have to say about it.

The on the left side of Hammon's cabin was a cabin that looked was lined with tin with precious jewels embedded into it. I recognized it immediately. That cabin was for Melqart, god of trade and the underworld, and the patron god of the old city of Tyre. Just like Tanit though he had no disciples,

Yet.

On the opposite side of Melqart's cabin was a cabin that was also made out of marble however covering the marble were droplets of rain. I decided that it was Ba'al Hadads, lord of the Phoenician gods and lord of the sky.

"Elissa," I heard Bethóc call out to me, "What did Gisco want"? She asked emerging from Eshmun's cabin.

"Oh, yeah, he just wanted to know if I heard anything about Mago." I said quickly trying to come up with a reason without telling her about what really happened.

"I got your pay for the job by the way, I was thinking about heading over to our usual restaurant." Bethóc said handing me a leather bag that I assumed contained my pay.

"Sure." I said. And with that we made our way to the elevator to go down to street level. When we got down we went to the closest currency exchange that Max Wright, a disciple of Kothar, was working, to make money for himself and he also allowed Carthaginians to exchange our shekels for American dollars.

We each exchanged half of our pay and received twenty dollars each.

Now let me tell you, after living in Cuba for my entire life I couldn't for the life of me figure out who the person on the front of the bill was, I did know who was on the front of a Cuban twenty dollar Peso, Camilo Cienfuegos.

And now you're going to ask why does that matter, it doesn't.

Anyway we've both had enough puls punica, Phoenician porridge, to last a lifetime since we've first freed Khasis.

After a lunch of burgers and fries, we headed back to New Hippone for dueling session in the newly built arena. Honestly it was more like a portion of land that was roped off, but we made the best of it with training dummies to help prefect maneuvers and space for dueling with others.

Gisco had a routine all figured out for the place, from after breakfast to lunch all of the soldiers would train for at least half an hour, after lunch everyone, including recruiters, would practice fighting someone else close to their style, and in the evening till eleven the arena was free for anything.

As seeing that both Gisco and Thomas were leaving for a while that would place me in charge of instructing the legion, I sighed, this was far too much responsibility dumped on me all at once.

Before heading to the arena I stopped at my cabin to retrieve my shield, soliferrum and dirk. As long as I could find someone whom I could demonstrate on properly teaching wouldn't be that hard.

As luck would have it when the group arrived for training I spotted out a boy with black hair and a Greek complexion about my age wearing an orange camp half blood t-shirt with a Greek short sword and shield.

"He'll do." I thought to myself.

"Elissa Barcid." I said greeting him. "Instructor for however long it takes for either Thomas or Mago to return."

"Seth Foster, son of Athena." he said nodding politely.

"Would you mind helping me to demonstrate something for the masses"? I asked.

"Are you offering anything for helping." he said looking around smirking a bit.

"Yeah, I can tell you why you were shunned by the rest of Camp Half-blood."

"Oh really."

"You're a pain in the (Now this is the part where Mago would say neck and Gisco would say Gluteus maximus or something like that) ass."

"Alright I'll help you, not that I didn't know that already of course, they compared me to, well, you guys." Seth said smiling.

Of course, back in the classical era whenever a _Carthaginian_ was described the person they were talking about was manipulative, cynical and ambitious. I could go on but I think you get the picture.

"Thanks."

Five minutes after that encounter the session was ready to begin.

First I decided to just go ahead and start off with a duel before I taught anything; I picked up a practice falcata from the weapon rack and dropped my shield.

"Drop your shield," I shouted over to Seth.

He looked surprised but went along with it. I eventually started the session by showing how to fight without a shield.

Seth and I took opposite sides of a circle that I had drawn out earlier for pressing opponents, and we drew our blades.

He was good, I'll give him that, he easily parried my first attack and followed up with a strike that would have hit me if I hadn't feigned a fall.

I then leaped back to use the extra, minimal but still something, length the falcata offered over the Greek broadsword and tried to knock the sword out his hands by using the striking at the cross guard, he quickly realized what I was attempting and withdrew his sword hand fiercely.

Then Seth Stepped in closer and used his sword to try to twist my falcata out of my hands, I realized that he was trying a Greek method of disarming, I however, had confidence in the shape of the falcata's hilt which prevented the disarming maneuver to work leaving him astounded and me victorious after knocking the sword from his grasp.

"What the…" Seth looked at his dropped sword in disbelief.

"Even the best Greek swordsmen are caught off guard by the design of the falcata." I said picking his sword up and giving it back to him. "However the Greeks who are successful against Carthaginians usually end up adapting their fighting style." I said turning to the onlookers. "However, having a diverse army can also lead to victory as shown evident by Hannibal during the second Punic war." I said dismissing Seth back to the audience. "Instead of training his troops to be one giant mass of the same fighting style, however good it may be, Hannibal adapted to the fighting style of the troops and used their strengths. One example can be found in the battle of the Trebia when the small Numidian horses were able to be concealed by tall grass allowing Mago Barca to attack the flank of the Roman army.

By that time I was running out of things to say so I just decided to let them loose and start training which resulted in me having some time to myself.

I decided to try to find where Gisco was. I remembered that he was picking something up but that was a while ago and I assumed he had already gotten it, so I strolled over to the temple area.

When I say temple area I mean the area that temples will be not that they were already there. Kothar and Khasis only provided us with some buildings such as the cabins and the tower that Gisco had an office in I presumed.

So far there was only one temple under construction, a temple to Tanit, and the only part of it that was finished was the foundation, a square foundation made of what I assumed was marble with a couple of smaller squares on top, but each one was still easily as big as four of the cabins. Hopefully she'll like it. However since our current shortage of Kothar disciples and children of Athena, we did not dare do anything more.

Standing on top of the foundation was Gisco wearing his white priest robes and a purple tunic signifying his importance, _cough cough._

"Elissa," he said walking off of the foundation, "what brings you here"?

"I was looking for you." I responded. "What is it that you're looking for exactly?" I asked.

"A friend." he responded stopping next to me.

"You said you were looking for signs of some sort in the tower, what's going on"? I asked.

"I know what I said," Gisco looking down. "My friend is a sign."

"What." I said confused. "How can a person be a sign"?

"If he's alive or not, that's the sign." Gisco responded looking me in the eye.

"If you need to tell anyone where I am tell them what I told you before, especially If Mago gets back by the time I return, I don't what to get his hopes up." Gisco said leaving me alone wondering. Who was he looking for, why my brother would know him, where he was going, and most importantly, what he had to go down to the street level in order to receive.


End file.
